Emma Mendy, a member of the PURA’s Legal Department made this statement yesterday before the Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) and the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) while testifying in the ongoing petroleum saga involving US$30 million.
Ms Mendy informed the committee that Apogee owns 99% of Creed and Ultimate Beige, while Aurimas Steblys owns 1%.
Due to this, their licence application was put on hold, which “significantly impacts” their operations as they are regulated based on government policies. She added that they were not consulted when the new policy was being formulated.
Regarding the presence of Apogee Gambia Ltd., Creed Energy Limited, and Ultimate Beige Logistics, PURA’s Managing Director Njogu Bah revealed that the companies had applied for a licence to import petroleum products. However, upon reviewing their application, it was discovered that the applicants might be involved in illegal petroleum product supply chain operations.
MD Bah reported that on 20 of June 2023, there was an inflow of D8,536,893.75 into the applicant's Ecobank Account from Castle Oil Ltd. “Additionally, on the same date, there was an inflow of D2,033,206.41 into the applicant's Ecobank Account from Creed Energy,” he further revealed.
“An unlicenced Oil Marketing Company (OMC) made a payment for 50,000 litres of AGO. On June 21st, 2023, there was an inflow of D34,148,081.00 from Castle Oil, an OMC, into the applicant's Ecobank Account for AGO. Subsequently, on the 22nd of June, 2023, an inflow of D6,360,559.14 from Jarl Oil, an OMC, was made into the applicant's Ecobank Account for 158,400 litres of AGO,” he outlined.
MD Bah stated that PURA found them wanting and issued a fine of D500,000 on October 6, 2023, and ordered them to cease all involvement in petroleum supply operations, which has yet to be paid.
Responding to the fine, he said, the applicant sent a letter dated October 10, 2023, refuting the allegations of illegal petroleum trading activities and citing a government policy on storing and lifting petroleum products at the storage facilities in the country for transit and re-export, dated July 3, 2023.
For his part, the acting Director General of Water and Petroleum, PURA, revealed: "When we received the enforcement, they responded. However, during this time, a government policy from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy was issued to address some of these issues. If enforcement conflicts with a government policy, it should be withdrawn. The government policy was passed on October 30, 2023," he recalled.
Further speaking from the legal point of view, Ms Mendy also noted that PURA does not have legal representation whereas they engage different lawyers to see who is best suited to represent them.
“The policy did indeed affect some of our actions because as a regulator for the government, it's important to put up a united front and if you have a policy, that is somewhat tying your hands as to what you can do as a regulator. It makes it very difficult because you don't want to go against policy since they do have the mandate under the law to set the policy direction of the regulated entity,” she said.
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